Once upon a time, a man named “Art” believed that he was made of flesh and bones. It certainly appeared to be the case; for he, as were you, had been conditioned to believe the lies of his senses. Due to the veil of forgetfulness about the Reality of his Being, he assumed that the experiences he had were absolutely real. He enjoyed life greatly when all was going well, but suffered terribly with some of life’s challenges. He was deeply attached to his family and and also driven to succeed. As so often happens in stories, life suddenly delivered a blow (divorce) that shocked Art to his very core. The family that he had loved so dearly was broken.

As part of his healing journey, Art set out upon numerous trips on Scout, his beloved Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 motorcycle. He intuited that that freedom of the open road would be good for his spirit. Travelling by motorcycle felt far less lonely than sitting by himself in an empty car. Several years, and thousands of kilometers, rolled by. Art rode north, south, east, and west in a futile attempt to leave the pain related to loss behind him. Such was the apparent then part of the story.

***

Through the Light of Grace, awakening happened; which basically means that Universal Consciousness knowingly re-cognized that It never had been Art–not now, or ever. Art was merely a mind character in Lila, the play of Life. All of his apparent history–of marriage, family, career, and those long-distance rides on Scout–occurred only as a dream in Consciousness. Thus, Art also learned that he was never the apparent doer. This is the now part of the story; where we awaken to All That’s Real and discover that anything else is only apparently real.

***

I deliberately used the term then to refer to Art’s historical perspective; but please know that I am aware that any apparent motorcycling (and anything else that appears to occur) can only occur Now. For those readers who may be wondering if its time to dial 911 and summon help, I offer the following quote from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and his spiritual classic entitled I Am That:

“Both sleep and waking are misnomers. We are only dreaming. True waking and sleeping only the gnani [knower, sage] knows.We dream that we are awake, we dream we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates.”

I also offer the following quote from Open Secret, by Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray):

“Our dreamed ‘selves,’ autonomous in appearance, as in life, can be seen in awakened retrospect to be puppets totally devoid of volitional possibilities of their own. Nor is the dream in any degree dependent on them except as elements therein. They, who seem to think that they are living and acting autonomously, are being dreamed in their totality; they are being activated as completely and absolutely as puppets are activated by their puppeteer. Such is our apparent life, on this apparent earth, in this apparent universe.

And finally, I offer this quote attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha:

“Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof.”

If you, dear spiritual brothers and sisters, are going through your own apparent trials and tribulations, please take heart. Contemplate the information that’s been shared in this article. The true YOU is divine, immortal, and untouched.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2021 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡